1. Field of the Invention
The instant invention relates to band tracks for tracked vehicles, and more particularly, the instant invention relates to a mine resistant band track for tracked military vehicles, such as tanks, armored personnel carriers and the like.
2. Technical Considerations and Prior Art
Historically, warfare scenarios and deployment techniques have limited the use of land mines to certain well defined situations to impede or channel opposing forces. Advance knowledge of mine field locations could permit effective countermeasures using mine-clearing equipment, such as mine-clearing rollers mounted on lead vehicles, projected explosive line charges or, depending on the tactical situation, sacrificing vehicles and uniformed personnel by simply charging over the mine field.
Introduction of mechanically emplaced and air-delivered mines on the modern battlefield has compounded the problem of maintaining the mobility of armored vehicles. Air and artillery delivery capabilities have introduced offensive mining techniques wherein mines are laid at random along approach routes.
Tracked vehicles, such as tanks, can be stopped with relatively small explosive charges which are easily delivered by airplanes and artillery. Charges of this type cause a mobility failure by breaking track sections and temporarily stalling armored vehicles, such as tanks, which can then be destroyed by artillery and anti-tank weapons generally placed to cover a mined area.
Blast mines generally have two damaging mechanisms operative when exploded. The first is the shearing forces associated with the rapid expansion of the blast envelope. As this blast envelope is spherical, the force at the blast envelope front generally diminishes at a cubic rate as distance from the point of explosion increases, in volumetric relationship to the spheroidal expansion. The second damage mechanism is the impact of entrained ejecta, whether from intentionally included shrapnel or from ground debris ejected upon explosion. The damage effect of the ejecta diminishes at a squared rate as the distance from the point of explosion increases, in relationship to the area of the spheroidal expansion surface.
Band type tracks employ flexible material and are generally more vulnerable to being rendered inoperable by mines than are conventional chain-like hinge pinned type tracks. In band tracks fitted with track pads, the band track typically fails along a transverse line at the front or rear of one or more of the track pads. For a given event, it is not clear whether the failure caused by a mine explosion is primarily attributable to the shearing forces generated by the movement of the band track when impacted by the spherical blast envelope of the explosion or the impact of blast entrained ejecta. In most cases, it is likely that the band track failure is caused by both damaging mechanisms.
In view of this evolution in expected battlefield conditions, there continues to be a need for new and improved mine resistant track configurations, including band tracks, for tracked vehicles. Further, it is desirable that such improved band track configurations resist both types of damaging mechanisms, the shearing forces and the blast entrained ejecta.